Isaac and Ishmael
by gpshaw
Summary: When a Dark Lighter attacks Piper in her club, the Charmed ones discover a dark secret that has been hidden by Whitelighters for 18 years, a secret that could hearald the formation of a new evil, or powerful ally... chapter 1 fixed: no longer my homework
1. Teaser

-1**Ok it's time for the legal mumbo-jumbo-gumbo Charmed and it's characters and storylines are property of it's respectful owners, I am using these characters for entertainment purposes only and not for profit. The Character's Ishmael and Isaac are owned by me and may not be used without my permission. Ok everyone wake back up and lets get it on!**

**This doesn't have a set season yet, I'm a recent fan of Charmed (God bless TNT) so I don't know a whole lot about the characters, I'm hoping to recruit a friend to help me write these so stay tuned.**

**Oh and guys I'm sorry for the DARE essay I must have gotten the documents confused... very embarassing**

The city of San Francisco was in full night-life swing. The larger clubs were overflowing and the bouncers had a full plate, even the smaller clubs were feeling the force of the coming weekend. Piper Halliwell sat behind the bar watching the crowds pour in. This was a good night, it had been awhile since the club had seen this much volume. Perhaps she could finally pay some of the bills.

She sat back and listened to the music and absorbed the flashing lights and sounds of people dancing and enjoying themselves. It may be hectic at times but she still loved her job. Suddenly something caught her eye, three people had walked into the club. At first she wasn't sure what about them had caught her eye, she didn't have her sister's premonition skills so it was unlikely she had sensed any demonic energy.

It didn't take long for her to figure out what set them apart, while most of the club was wearing street clothes or typical "going out" dress. These guys were dressed in all black and seemed to have no interest in dancing. _Great _she thought. _Looks like we've got some dealers…_ There had been a rash of drug dealing in the club district recently mostly ecstasy and other "party" drugs. Many clubs tolerated their presence and some even encouraged it, (The more ex you took the more time you spent buying drinks in the club) but Piper wasn't going to allow it her club. She called over one of the bouncers.

"Jack." She said.

"Yes'm?" Jack said his deep Tennessee drawl evident.

"You think you could get those guys over there to leave, I don't want drugs in my club."

"No problem." As he started for the small group the men suddenly began to charge at the bar. Two of them had guns drawn.

"Everybody get down!" One of them yelled. It made sense for everyone to comply. Piper ducked behind the bar and peeked out getting ready to aim a freezing spell, but in this public a venue it might not be such a smart move. Maybe she should call for Leo, but again the crowds, but she couldn't just stand here there were way too many innocents… Suddenly Piper saw Jack jump up and charge towards the one man without a gun.

"No!" Piper yelled jumping up. In that moment three things happened quickly, first one of the armed men fired hitting Jack in the back. Second the unarmed man held out his hands and a crossbow appeared from a black mist. Third Piper recognized the Dark Lighter weapon, _screw the rules!_ She threw a freezing spell and the entire club was frozen in time save for the Dark Lighter and his two allies.

"Shit Ishmael," One of them said. "My gun's frozen." Piper took a second to look and see the bullet frozen only inches away from Jack's back then threw and explosion spell vanquishing the shooter. A Dark Lighter arrow whizzed by her missing by inches. She got ready to fire another spell at the Dark Lighter but before she had the chance he got rid of his crossbow and orbed out, grabbing his buddy on his way.

_What the hell_ Piper thought as walked over and pushed knocked the bullet from the gun to the ground. _Why would a Dark Lighter attack me like that… _She undid the spell. The crowd was still in a panic. The remainder of the night was spent signing police reports and trying to calm down her customers. She and Leo were going to have a LONG talk when she got back to the manor.

A wave of dark light particles descended in the center of the large living room. The Dark Lighter and his gunman we're now standing in front of a man sitting in a chair with two large ivory tusks for armrests. The anger of the man was palpable Ishmael almost expected fire to fly from the man's stare, which may not be too far from reality.

"What the hell was that?" The man said. Ishmael did not meet his eyes.

"I am sorry _cognatus _I was not prepared for the presence of a witch, much less one as powerful as this one."

"That is evidence of the magnitude of your incompetence, ever since you came into your powers you have been taking stupid risks, remember Ishmael the time we spent training you before you gained your powers was done for a reason your powers will not always be enough to defeat your enemies. Perhaps it is time to remind you of the power my light sided brethren have!" A fireball shot out and the man next to Ishmael vaporized. Ishmael sighed.

"Why must you continue killing my men?"

"They're not your men Ishmael they are my men, you've not taken control of my legacy yet, and your astounding failure tonight leads me to think perhaps I should look to other members of my extended family to fill the opening."

"No _cognatus_, I will redeem myself, I will not only slay my original target but I will bring you the Charmed ones as well."

"And how do you intend to do that?"

"There powers are tied to their emotions aren't they, if they think they are supposed to guard my target and I kill her then they will be powerless to fight me." The man laughed.

"Now my nephew you are thinking like one of us!" Ishmael gave what may have been interpreted by a smile.

"If I am to do this I must get going, I will not return until I have completed this task."

"See that you don't." Ishmael disappeared in a flash of dark lights. The man sat in his chair for a moment, then he snapped his fingers. "Come Botis," There was a loud his and a giant snake suddenly appeared."

"Yes Master." The snake said.

"Botis take a more respectable form in the presence of your master."

"Yes Master." There was a flash and what appeared to be green snakes slid away from the snake and through the air in their place was a rather handsome man with dark features. On his hip was a sword that glowed with a dark light. "What is your wish master?"

"Follow my Nephew keep him safe, but you are only to interfere if the Charmed Ones attack him."

"Yes master!" Botis disappeared in the same flash of snakes.

(Cut to opening Credits)


	2. Act I

Leo and the Charmed ones sat in the living room of the Halliwell manor. The moment Piper had arrived home Paige and Phoebe descended upon her to make sure she hadn't been harmed in the slightest.

"I just don't understand why you didn't call on me," Leo said. "I could've helped you."

"Well," Piper said. "There were so many people there I didn't want to risk exposing myself."

"So you'd thought you'd just freeze everybody, yeah no one would notice that."

"Hey I saw an opportunity and I took it, no one noticed and no one got hurt…"

"Except for one Darklighter bodyguard." Paige observed.

"Wait," Leo said. "Darklighters like to work alone, you sure those guys were with him?"

"I'm positive," Piper said. "They were taking orders from him like he was a general." Leo wasn't convinced.

"Are you sure they were holding guns, I mean some demons have an appendage that resembles a gun."

"Leo having a gun pointed at you isn't something you forget easily, and I saw the photos of the demon you're talking about the guns were in their hands not their..." She paused trying to think of a PC way to say crotch then gave up "they had guns, in fact I was certain they were drug dealers when I first saw them."

"It's just…" Leo said. "Demons don't _use _guns, and Darklighters don't attack witches unless their trying to lure our a Whitelighter and they certainly don't hire people with guns. This whole thing stinks to high heaven, I can't help but feel like there's something missing, you didn't happen to get this Darklighters name did you?"

"Yeah," Piper said. "Ishmael, they called him Ishmael." Leo's entire demeanor changed.

"Oh boy…"

"What?" Piper said.

"This could be bad," Leo said. "I'm going to have to talk to the elders."  
"About what?" Phoebe asked.

"I can't tell you right now, I have to make sure this is what I think it is." He began to orb out.

"Hey!" Piper snapped. "You can't just orb out on me I…" The orbs disappeared. "I _hate _it when he does that."

"What do you think this means?" Paige asked.

"I don't know," Phoebe said. "But I think we need to start looking up Ishmael in the Book."

"And we'd better get a Darklighter vanquishing potion ready too…" Piper said. "Lets get started. The sisters went their separate ways. Paige stayed behind for a second and sighed.. _Great and just when it seemed like things were looking up_. Suddenly a stream of black orbs appeared and Ishmael solidified in the living room, he was holding his crossbow and aiming it squarely at her.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Paige said. "Piper, Phobes, little help!"

"_Vicis loquor laxus _bitch!" Ishmael yelled but before he could fire it Piper ran back into the room and hit him with an explosion spell. The spell didn't hit its mark for some reason because he flew backwards and hit a bookcase shattering it. Piper caught a glimpse of something odd around his neck as the arrow he had fired lodged harmlessly in a doorframe.

"Damn, she's not here!" The Darklighter got painfully to his feet and orbed out.

"Why would he attack us here?" Phoebe asked. "most Darklighters would consider it suicide."

"Yeah," Piper said. "I think the two attacks tonight show that our little friend here is not like most dark lighters."

"Maybe he's smarter," Paige offered. "I mean a smart enemy hits you exactly where you think you're safe." Her sisters stared at her for a moment. "Hey I stayed up late watching _Pear Harbor _last night." Then she noticed a piece of parchment in the rubble of the bookcase.

"Parchment!" She commanded and the parchment appeared in her hand. "Hey look at this…" She said. Her sisters gathered around. On the parchment was a drawing of a young woman with blonde hair. There was also some writing on it in a strange language.

"Anyone recognize the writing?" Paige asked.

"No," Phoebe said. "But, Whitelighters have a language of their own I guess dark lighters might too…" They noticed Piper was staring at the image of the girl.

"Hey…" Piper said. "I saw this girl at the club tonight." The light bulb went on in all three sisters heads at the same time.

"And I guess that a Darklighter showing up at the club with a photo of her in his pocket wasn't a bad attempt at a blind date." Phoebe said.

"He must've thought we knew why he attacked and brought her here," Phoebe said "That's what he meant by 'she isn't here'"

"Well I think we should start looking for her before he finds out where she is," Piper said. "think we can scry for her using the photo?"

"Be worth a shot," Phoebe said. "I'll take care of that, Paige could you keep looking for Ishmael in the book?"  
"Yeah." Paige said.

"And I'll get back to work on the potion." Piper said. The sisters headed up to the attic it was going to be a long night…

(Cut)

The black orbs formed into the shape of Ishmael again this time in his upscale apartment. Ishmael had been given the apartment in a will and the estate of the deceased was paying the rent. The fact that the owner had died with the help of Ishmael and that the will was a fake didn't lessen the niceness of the room any.

Ishmael sat down in an armchair and reclined. He picked up a copy of _Othello _and began to read through it when he felt a presence. Moments later several bright green snakes flew threw the air and formed together into the shape of a man. Ishmael didn't even look up.

"Hey Botis," Ishmael said nonchalantly. "Let me guess my uncle wants to know why the hell I attack the Charmed ones at their house?"  
"Precisely!" Botis said angrily. "He sent me to protect you from them and was quite incensed by the fact that you went straight to their house from his manor. If you hadn't been wearing that cross you would be dead now."

Perhaps even more nonchalantly that before Ishmael took the three inch long golden cross necklace from out of his shirt and looked at it.

"Hmm, so this thing saved my life huh? Hard to believe, I mean, I just wore it for the fashion sense." Botis was getting annoyed with the prissy attitude this child displayed to his Uncle's workmates, of course the Patriarch himself had been like this at a young age too.

"The fact that you even wear holy articles has no less than half of your uncles men wondering aloud whether they will stay on should you become Patriarch.

"Botis," Ishmael said condescendingly. "Don't discuss family matters while I'm reading." Botis gritted his teeth. _Just a phase all young Livus men go through! _He kept reminding himself. Ishmael marked his place in the book then put it down.

"Tell my Uncle not to worry about me, there's a method to my madness, I will have my target and the Charmed ones dead within the week."

"How is running from them going to help?" Ishmael sighed.

"Just give him the damn message." Botis snarled and disappeared in the flash of snakes.

(Cut)  
Back at the manor Phoebe was still scrying for the girl in the photo, so far no luck and Paige's search for Ishmael in the book was equally futile. Only Piper was succeeding making three potions to vanquish the new Darklighter. Paige stood up and slammed the book down with frustration.

"Ok that's it," She said. "I give up there's nothing in the book about a Darklighter named Ishmael. At that moment Leo reappeared.

"Hey," Piper said. "Where have you been you missed the second Darklighter attack of the night."

"I'm sorry hon," Leo said. "I had to make sure this was what I thought it was." Piper stared at him for second.

"Was it?"

"Yeah it was." Phoebe looked up from her scrying.

"What's going on then?" Leo noticed the potions sitting on the table beside Piper.

"Oh Piper those won't work."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked. "They worked on other Darklighters."

"Yeah but, he's not really a Darklighter, he's only part Darklighter."

"Oh," Paige said. "And what's the other part?" Leo sighed then shrugged and said simply.

"He's half Whitelighter."

(Cut to commercials)

**Bum Bum Bum ok that's chapter two, and notice no drug essays this time around :) Now you hardcore Charmed fans, I need you to make sure I get the personalities of the characters down. As I said I'm a reccent convert to Charmed so I don't know a whole lot. And for those of you who are wondering how there can be a Darklighter Whitelighter hybrid all I can say is read on. And of course leave a review I do love them reviews yes sireee...**


	3. Act II1

**Sorry it took so long guys but I've had to deal with a bad internet connection, here's the next chapter**

**This section was written by the wonderful and lovely Lilmanaic lets all have a round of applause.**

sarah and diane entered their apartment, sarah looking pale and shaking, diane guiding her inside

"we're home sar, are you okay?" sarah shook her head.

"n-no... i think... i need to lie down" tears started to spill down her cheeks, and diane led her into her room, laying her down on the bed.

"look, i know that was scary back there... i mean, armed men trying to take over that club, but... but... i know you, this is something else, isnt it?"

"just... ive seen one of them before...but... they dissapeared!" the blond haired girl looked up at her older companion, a look of pure fear in her eyes.

"know him? from where?"

"I... i dont know" to be honest sarah didnt want to admit that the man she had seen in the club that night just also happened to haunt her darkest nightmares, ones she had been having for well over a month now.

she looked up a her friend, smiled and patted her arm "thanks di, but ill be fine"

after a few more assuring words, diane left sarah to her own thoughts. she sighed, closed her eyes...

-x-

and suddenly her nightmare came again. she saw a woman in pain, she was screaming her lungs out, her face was a bright pink and her hair was plastered to her face. a man was yelling from afar.. telling her to hold on...

then came the image of a man, weeping as he was curled up in a corner, looking at the woman who was now not moving, holding a small bundle in his arms.

"im so sorry" he sobbed... "glenda, im so...sorry"

he stood, running from the room with the small bundle. time flashed by to show a small boy, and the same man, the boy was no more than one or two, looking up at the man who was holding him.

"you are NOT taking my son!" he yelled at whoever he was facing, a group of people... she couldnt tell who, all she could see was this mans face and the little boy, who looked like he had no idea what was going on.

"you dont have a choice dear brother, now hand him over"

"i-" suddenly she saw another man, behind the first man, holding the boy. the first man became wide eyed, and seemed to be having trouble breathing.

"as i said, you dont have a choice little brother" the second man snarled, and the boy dissapeared, and she watched in horror as the first man erruped into flames, screaming madly.

the last part of the nightmare was the worst. sarah could tell it was the present day, because she was there, only she was outside her body, looking at herself facing off against the boy that had now grown up.

"you dont have to do this!" she cried, a tear falling down her cheek. he just stared hatefully at her, suddenly he was in front of her, grabbing her neck and lifting her up off the ground, with her gasping for air. then she saw the bow in his other hand... and watched as he fired an arrow into her stomach, with tears falling down her cheeks...

-x-x

saras eyes snapped open, and she gasped, grabbing her throat, sweat trickling down her forehead as she looked around, calming only a little when she realised she was back in her room, and it was now morning.

no.. not morning... her bedside table was on fire!

sarah jumped out of bed, toppling to the floor, reaching for the thing shed learnt not to sleep without; a fire extinguisher.

she grabbed it, putting what she now realised was a small flame out as fast as possible. when it was out she sat down on her bed, shaking her head, and realising this had to end. after each dream... a small flame would errupt somewhere around her, and she couldnt explain it.

as sh sat there, she realised there was only one way that she could do it. she had to find out who those people were, and fast.

(Cut)

**Now back to my writing, this is gonna be a tough act to follow**

"Wait a minute," Piper said. "Half Whitelighter and half Darklighter, how is that even possible? I mean most Darklighters are shoot first and ask questions later, there's not much time for anything romantic."

"It's… a very long story." Leo said.

"We'll," Phoebe said looking up from her scrying again. "I'm not going anywhere." Leo sat down in one of the chairs.

"About 18 years ago there was a Darklighter named Cassius, he was one of the incubi type of Darklighter, he was one of the most successful ones in the history of the… craft. He decided that it was time to go after the ultimate prize, a Whitelighter woman, Glenda Cassius succeeded and seduced a greenhorn Whitelighter woman.

"Cassius was hoping to just use the sexual part of the relationship to drain her energy and make himself stronger, but he didn't foresee something: he got Glenda pregnant. At this point the Elders got involved. They sent a witch to vanquish Cassius, but Glenda wouldn't allow it, she got in front of him and wouldn't move. That day Cassius hung up his crossbow for good if you will, he swore to the Elders that he had reformed, for some reason they decided to trust him, and he and Glenda chose to live out a mortal life.

"A few days after Glenda died in childbirth, Cassius' past caught up with him."

"The Darklighters came after him?" Paige asked.

"No," Leo said. "When Glenda gave up her powers the Darklighters lost interest, but in life Cassius was the Patriarch of a powerful Warlock family. His brother had taken over as patriarch and he wanted an heir. The Livus warlocks have almost unprecedented access to demons, and they killed Cassius and took the child as their own. Ishmael was that child, he popped on and off the radar every now and then, mostly minor things stealing potions beat up a few greenhorn witches I think, Elders didn't think he had any powers, he must have only recently come into them."

"If he didn't have any powers how did he survive attacking witches?"

"The Livus family train their protégé in more things than magic, they are very skilled at hit-and-run style fighting. Most of the time he'd just conk someone on the head grab whatever he was looking for and get out." Paige remembered how fast the kid had bolted after he missed her… "Now that he's come into his powers the Elders are growing concerned."

"What makes him so important?" Piper asked.

"Ishmael has parents from two opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to good and evil, Cassius only turned good after Ishmael was conceived, as such Ishmael has incredible potential for power, he has both the blood of a Dark and Whitelighter, not to mention his warlock genes, he's no Power of Three but he has the potential to be a very powerful ally for whoever gets him on their side."

"Wait," Paige said. "What do you mean 'get him on their side' looks to me like he's already chosen a side."

"He hasn't," Leo said. "Evil is all he knows, one must make a conscious choice to turn to evil. Now that he's come into his powers he's going to have to make that choice very soon. The Elders think that we should try and turn him good, and I happen to agree."

"That's sounds like a good idea Leo" Piper said. "But how are we going to do that, he didn't seem that interested in hearing our side of the story."  
"Wait? " Phoebe asked. "Why are we even trying to bring him to our side? Why don't we just vanquish him? I of all people know what happens when you put faith in someone's ability to turn good. The Power of Three is all the power we'll need."

"First no vanquishing potion yet exists for a hybrid like him, you'd have to use the Power of Three."

"So we'll use the Power of Three then…"

"Second Ishmael's father was a true symbol of redemption, few things in this world are that representative of good. That a man could be brought from the lowest form of darkness back into the light by love is no small thing, the Elders aren't sure what might happen if we destroy the product of such a thing."

"So we need to capture him, give him the old 'good versus evil' speech and try and make him into a good guy, that it?" Piper said.

"Yeah," Leo responded. "From what the Elders know he's on a mission from his uncle, the final proof of his worthiness to lead the clan."

"Think it has something to do with that girl?" Phoebe asked.

"Girl?" Leo said. Phoebe took the photo out of the scrying crystal. "Here it's not helping us anyway." Leo looked at the parchment and began reading the strange words.

"Where did you get this?"

"He dropped it when he attacked us." Leo began to read the strange language.

"This is a picture of his target, some girl named Kyra, his mission is to capture her get her potion and then kill her."

"Potion?" Piper asked.

"It doesn't say anymore, but it seems this is the final mission that he must complete to take over as Patriarch. Looks like this mission is his choice, if he completes it…"

"Let me guess," Piper said. "He'll become evil and our worst enemy?"

"Pretty much."

"Then we'd better double our efforts," Phoebe said . "Can I get that…" As she reached for the photo the familiar sensation of a premonition overtook her.

-- People were dancing in a club, it wasn't Piper's but some other club

-- The girl from the photo was dancing by herself she seemed to be having a good time.

-- Ishmael orbed in at the same time she and her sisters arrived a brief fight began.

-- Ishmael grabbed the girl at the same time Piper used her molecular acceleration spell

-- Instead of Ishmael the spell hit the girl killing her

"Phoebs…" Pipers voice rang through the premonition Phoebe snapped back to reality. "Phoebs, what happened what did you see."

"She's in a club, there were a lot of flashing lights and…" She tried to remember more of the details of the club. She remembered a banner above the stage. _Happy Cinco De Mayo_. That wouldn't help much, there was a large Mexican population in San Francisco and most of the English speaking bars celebrated the Mexican holiday of Cinco De Mayo, literally Fifth of May, because it gave people an excuse to down their brains in Tequila. She would have to search for something else. Then it came to her a shot glass with a logo on it that had been knocked over in the tussle.

"The club has a logo, two swords crossed over a griffin." Piper's eyes lit up.

"That's the Legend club, it's a few blocks down from P3."

"I think we should get going…" Paige said and walked towards her sisters ready to orb.

"Wait," Phoebe said. "In my vision there was a Cinco De Mayo banner on a balcony. Today's the 4th," Recalling a clock on the wall the vision became much clearer. "And it looks like whatever happens occurs at 2 am."

"Great," Piper said. "why can't this girl just go home after 10?" Phoebe wasn't finished.

"One more thing, Piper don't use your powers there, in my premonition you used them and it killed her."

"Ok," Piper said. "Then what am I going to do if I can't use my powers." Phoebe thought on that for a moment.  
"You and Paige get the girl I'll distract Ishmael…"

"No way," Paige said. "We're not leaving you in there by yourself."

"Don't worry," Phoebe said. "From what I've seen of this guy he likes to use his arrows, at close range I'll have the advantage, plus you or Leo could orb in and get me out if things get too hairy."

"It'd have to be quick," Piper said. "Before he has the chance to get one of those arrows off."

"I can do it," Leo said. "Knock him down or better yet, out, then call me I'll get you out of there and we'll find out just what this girl knows.

(Cut)

In it's infancy the Livus warlock family had been nomadic, they were an offshoot of an ancient Roman death cult that had been brought to Gaul (Modern day France and Germany). For 300 years the family lived in the thick forests of Europe moving from place to place killing and pillaging but never staying in one place long enough for Witches to hunt them down. Exactly how the family arrived in pre-colonial America is unknown. It is known however that the family ended their nomadic existence long before the first permanent settlers arrived in California.

The Livus Manor was built sometime in the early 1800's. It stood atop a hill in the Chaparral of California. The house was largely constructed by magical means. It was made of imported granite from Egypt and it had a dark menacing look even on the brightest of days. Dark dense stone and metals were a motif throughout the house. The house would be a realtors nightmare if it ever went on the market.

Many years of wildfires and mudslides (A/N At this time I would like to thank my Biology Professor Dr. Dyche for his wonderful lecture on biomes) had failed to destroy the house, even as those within mere miles of it were destroyed.

The family graveyard took a large part of the massive back lawn, dense trees imported from England (and kept alive by magic) blocked out most of the sunlight. In the centre of the graveyard was a large fountain, the spouts of the fountain were all snakes, the copper they were made of had long since oxidized green, the current owner seemed to like that look better since a simple spell would clean them off quite nicely. Most of the graves were embossed with the symbol of the family an uppercase L with a snake coiling around it with it's mouth open revealing two wicked fangs.

The same symbol formed the two massive bronze knockers on the heavy wooden doors. The carvings were so well made that many people elected to knock with their hands rather than risk being bitten by the bronze snake. Such fears were, of course, unfounded. Through the massive doors was the main foyer. The area was adorned with portraits of all the previous patriarchs with one notable exception, the photo holding that of Cassius Livus had long since been burned in the fireplace of the living room.

A large square balcony extended from the second floor library held stead by columns designed to look like coiling snakes were climbing the granite structures. The balcony was barren it seemed to be a place where the host could greet his guests without having to come into close proximity with them. The steps of any visitor would echo loudly as they walked down the hallway to the left and into the main living room.

Upon entering the living room the most notable figure was what had become known as the Throne of the Patriarch on the opposite end of the room . It was a large mahogany throne with large ivory tusks serving as armrests. The seat of the throne was a deep red as was the canvas above it. In fact most of the room was red, the carpet, and several banners hanging from the rafters. The color of the room matched the color of the Patriarchs birthstone.

It was in this throne that the current patriarch of the Livius family, Marcus Livius sat. The Patriarch was known by one of two names to other family members, Father, or _Cognatus. _Daughters and sons used the name father whilst nieces and nephews used the Latin word for blood relative _Cognatus. _Other family members would use either the term Sir, or master. Marcus Livius was about 98 years old, his face had become very withered and his hair was thin and stringy. His brown eyes were half blind and many of his teeth had long since rotted away. Longevity was certainly not the strong suit of the Livius family, the oldest known Patriarch was only 107 at his death.

Botis was in his human form kneeling in front of the Patriarch now. Botis was the guardian demon of the Livius family. He had served them since their beginnings in the Roman cults. He had seen the rise and fall of all the Patriarchs, yet this was the first time he was concerned about the future of the family. Something about Ishmael made Botis uneasy, it was not his snide remarks, nor his bullheadedness, no these were traits that had been in the family for many generations. What worried Botis was the rather unusual method in which Ishmael came into being. The child of a Whitelighter was not exactly first pick for heir to the Livius throne. Had it been his place Botis would have said something however…

"Botis," Marcus said. "You may rise." Botis got to his feet.

"Master, Ishmael claims that his actions thus far are part of a larger plan, he would not enlighten me any further."

"As I expected, he takes after his father, in life dear Cassius was not one to share plans he was a man of scant trust, in family that has a snake as it's symbol perhaps it is best ."

"He did however promise that he would have the task completed within the week."

"Very well, thanks you for enlightening me," Marcus took out a long pipe and lit it. "your orders remain unchanged, you are to defend him from the Charmed Ones until he has succeeded me. I think after all of these years you know how to deal with meddling witches?" Botis smiled and transformed into his snake form.

"Of course, Master…" Marcus blew out a stream of smoke and shook his head.

"I hope you are not intending to kill them Botis, you may fight them but do not kill them save that task for the new Patriarch." Botis returned to human form.

"As you wish." He disappeared.

(Cut to advertisements)

**Ok and another chapter up you guys tell me what you think now.**


End file.
